~ The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Vitter Family Values

David Vitter’s new campaign video is all about how he failed his family but found forgiveness. In it, he and his family are sitting around a table as he talks of accepting responsibility and earning redemption. Not only is this video getting quite a bit of air time but at a recent Women’s Roundtable, his wife Wendy presented the video.

Let that sink for a moment – Wendy Vitter is traveling around the state to show a campaign commercial of her husband acknowledging that he cheated on her.

I won’t speculate on the dynamics of their marriage. But seeing naked political ambition eclipsing personal humiliation just boggles the mind.

I don’t really care that David Vitter had affairs, although I’m bothered by the fact he paid for sex. Soliciting is a crime in Louisiana which carries a $500 fine and up to six months in jail. We should definitely expect our elected representatives not to break the laws they swear to uphold.

For me, however, the real issue is that he committed serial adultery while espousing family values and preaching morality to the rest of us.

He positions himself as a great protector of marriage (and as a gatekeeper to exclude lesbians and gays from the institution) by being a chief sponsor on several efforts to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. “I don’t believe there’s any issue that’s more important than this one,” he said once the amendment was brought to the floor. He has also compared marriage equality to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Seriously? There is not a single issue more important than amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. Not a single one?

Not Louisiana’s unbalanced budget? Not the catastrophic loss of wetlands or the need for coastal restoration? Not the the dismal state of education? Not our crumbling infrastructure? Not the fact that Louisiana ranks last on nearly every quality of life survey until you get to the rates of sexually transmitted diseases and we take the lead?

Even if you are able to set aside for a moment legitimate differences on substantial policy matters, it behooves us all to be concerned that David Vitter has spent his entire career voting against the rights and liberties of the very same women he’s been screwing.

Furthermore, Vitter has proven, time and again, that he is corrupt to the core. I sincerely hope the voters of this state realize that if his marriage vows mean nothing to him, his oath of office will mean even less.